March 20, 2008

10 people (Jeff, Mr. B, Julie, John, Lisa, Pat, Becky, Erik, Karen, and Barb) made it to our meeting tonight at the Issaquah Brewhouse. Meeting in the banquet room was much more conducive to actual conversation.

Kryptonite rack program is on hold until the coordinator gets back in the office after the 21st. Lisa agreed to be the lead for this project going forward.

Talked about the city’s plans for Complete Streets (CS) improvements for this year. Jeff is going to draft a letter to the Transportation Committee CCing the council with our recommendations. Jeff will also provide a list of key points so the people of GAIT can write their own letters. Jeff will post that here on the blog and email the membership. Jeff will also try not to talk about himself in the third person so much. Barb also passed around a copy of the list of sidewalk projects planned for next year’s CS improvements.

We talked about other opportunities for leadership in GAIT.

Jeff and Barb will be working on formalizing GAIT’s organization and seeking 501(c)(3) status.

We talked about having a Transportation Committee committee to ensure that GAIT is always represented at the city council’s transportation committee meetings. There was broad support for this idea. Then we were thinking that those meetings were held at 4pm and support evaporated. Turns out the meetings are actually at 5pm. I don’t know if that helps or not. In any event, Jeff will appeal to the full membership for folks with schedules that can accommodate that time.

Project monitoring is another volunteer opportunity. John signed on to make an expedition to City Hall NW to identify current transportation projects that we should keep an eye on. Erik agreed to be the monitor for the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

John is also working on a visual identity for GAIT in his copious free time.

Barb gave us a crash course in interacting with City Hall. I think I’ll pull that out to its own post.

This concluded the formal portion of the meeting. Discussion followed on topics including

Certain city council members wondering why they’re not on the GAIT mailing list (Jeff took action to offer all council members opportunity to join GAIT)

Speculation about the promotional opportunities inherent in the presence of four bike shops in town.

Announcement that GAIT will have a table at the city’s Earth Day event on April 19th at the Pickering Barn during the farmer’s market.

Ideas for other stuff we can do like improving speed limit enforcement on Front Street in the many times when it’s not gridlocked, adding crosswalks on Gilman, getting some flashing crosswalk signals installed, co-hosting a transportation forum with other area stakeholders, having a group in the Salmon Days Parade, installing a judging stand by the train track crossing on Front Street to score crashing cyclists, starting an Issaquah critical mass ride, starting a Fremont-style nude bicycling movement. We may have been having a little too much fun there at the end.